paisano

English

Alternative forms

• paisan

Etymology

From Neapolitan and Spanish paisano, Italian paesano, French paysan. Doublet of peasant.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /paɪˈzɑ.noʊ/, /paɪˈsɑ.noʊ/

Noun

paisano (plural paisanos)

1. Among Italian Americans and Americans of Italian descent: a fellow Italian or Italian-American; a fellow ethnic Italian.
2. A native, especially a native of California of mixed Spanish and American Indian ancestry.
3. (US, Southwestern US) A roadrunner.
   • 1903 February, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Hygeia at the Solito”, in Everybody’s Magazine, volume VIII, number 2, New York, N.Y.: John Wanamaker, →ISSN, page 178, column 2:

     Within a very few minutes the cattleman was mounted and away. Paisano, well named after that ungainly but swift-running bird, struck into his long lope that ate up the ground like a strip of macaroni.

Anagrams

• anopias, anopsia

Cebuano

Alternative forms

• sano

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish paisano, from Old French païsan, from Latin pagus (“countryside”).

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: pa‧i‧sa‧no
• IPA^(key): /pajˈsano/, [paɪ̯ˈs̪a.n̪ɔ]

Noun

paisano

1. a fellow countryman; a compatriot

Galician

Etymology

Ultimately from Old French païsan, itself from Latin pagus (“countryside”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [pai̯ˈsanʊ]

Noun

paisano m (plural paisanos, feminine paisana, feminine plural paisanas)

1. a fellow countryman
   • 1888, Novo Galiciano, number 17:

     encamiñado a censurar ó Goberno pola súa apatía e indifrencia ante unha custión tan grave como é a emigración, i a reporbar certos medios, indinos i asquerosos que, por algús tratantes de carne humana se veñen pondo en práutica pra fomentar a espatriación dos nosos paisanos a lonxes terras.

     in place to censure the Government because of its apathy and indifference to such a serious matter as it is emigration, and to reprove certain means, indignant and repulsive, that some human flesh traders are using to encourage the expatriation of our countrymen to distant lands.

2. a peasant (someone who lives in the countryside)

References

• “paisano” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “paisano” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “paisano” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

Neapolitan

Noun

paisano

1. a fellow countryman or compatriot

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French païsan, itself from Latin pagus (“countryside”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /paiˈsano/ [pai̯ˈsa.no]
• Rhymes: -ano
• Syllabification: pai‧sa‧no

Noun

paisano m (plural paisanos, feminine paisana, feminine plural paisanas)

1. a fellow countryman
2. a peasant (someone who lives in the countryside)
3. (Jewish) a fellow Jew

Derived terms

• de paisano

 

Related terms

• paisanaje

 

Further reading

• “paisano”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014